| Notes |
[Chavez.FTW]
Don Pedro (Gomez) Duran Y Chavez, progenitor of the numerous Chavez family of New Mexico, finds first mention under this name in 1613 when as a captain he was sent to the Taos Pueblo to collect the Governor's Tribute. [Archive General de la Nacion, Mexico: 1. Inquisicion; Photo copies in the Coronado Library of the University of New Mexico. Some Inquisicion references by page, instead of "foja", are to transcript copies owned by Dean Scholes, to be found also in the Library of Congress and the Ayer Collection, t. 316, foja 152].
By 1626 he was Maese de Campo, or Commanding General, of all royal troops in New Mexico, when he testified that he was sixty years old, a native of Llerena, and one of the founders of the Villa of Santa Fe. [Archive General de la Nacion, Mexico: 1. Inquisicion, t. 356, foja 268].
In February, 1610, the year Santa Fe is believed to have been founded by Governor Peralta, he was down at the Port of Acapulco, taxing the cargo of a ship being fitted for a Philippine voyage; the ship's Admiral, Zevallos, did not make the voyage, but succeeded Peralta as Governor in 1614. [Archive General de Indias, Sevilla; Contadaduria: legs. 713, 720, Data.; transcript copies loaned to Fray Angelico Chavez by Dean Frances V. Scholes.]
Hence, Chavez must have reached New Mexico later in that year, 1610, for the founding of Santa Fe. This apparently, was not his first trip to New Mexico, for other data identify him as the Sargento, Pedro Gomez Duran of Onate's troops of 1600. Here he was described as a well-built man of good features, "fifty" years old, the legitimate son of Hernan Sanchez Rico, and born in Valverde in the jurisdiction of the grand Master of Santiago. ["Don Juan de Onate and the Founding of New Mexico", by George P. Hammond, Santa Fe, 1927; "Archivo General de Indias, Sevilla": 4. Patronato. - Photo copies available bound and numbered according to general title and legajo number in the Coronado Library of the University of New Mexico, t. 22, pt. 5, doc. 2, f. 503.]
In 602, he signed a petition to the Viceroy, asking that the infant colony be made a full "Republica" with a "Capital" and that large grants be made to the supplicants. ["Archivo General de Indias, Sevilla": Aud., leg. 121, No. 165].
Valverde de Llerena is a village some ten miles east of the city of Llerena in Estremadura, once famous as the headquarters of the Grand Master of the Order of Santiago (Order of St. James of the Sword). In June of 1952, Fray Angelico Chavez traveled to Valverde de Llerena, Spain and examined the parish books. The sixteenth-century registers have been lost, but the seventeenth-century volume was full of the names, Chavez, Sanchez, Gomez, Duran and Rico, in various combinations. Half of the population of Valverde is still named Chavez and Chavez, and practically all of the folks in the neighboring hamlet of Verlanga. Llerena's most famous citizen was Don Luis Zapata de Chavez (1526-1594) a Knight of Santiago, who was once imprisoned as unworthy of his knighthood for being a Don Juan; he wrote a famous historical poem, "Don Carlos Famoso" on the deeds of Charles V, which Cervantes did not consider very highly as literature. ["Historia de la Lengua y Literatura Castellana" by Julio Cejador, t. III, p. 90; "Ferias y Fiestas en Llerena" Llerena (Badajoz),-The Annual Fair Program from 1947, pp. 2, 3].
Part of this poem, describing the origin of the Chavez name and crest, together with a gold signet bearing the family coat-of-arms, was inherited by Colonel Manuel A. Chavez, but everything has been lost. [New Mexico Historical Review, Volume VI, No. 1, pp. 101-104.]
Since the first New Mexico Chavez was always addressed as a "Don", and he brought with him a quotation of the poem "Don Carlos Famoso", what was he to the noble poet, Don Luis Zapata de Chavez?? A close relative??
A Sargento in 1600, a Capitan by 1613, a Sargento Mayor (major) by 1623, "during the Jemez Campaign," Don Pedro had become over-all commander by 1626. How long he lived after this is not known. As a faithful executor of Governor Eulate's orders, he incurred the enmity of the Mission friars, several of whom berated him in writing, in 1621 and 1626, for impeding the Mission program. [Archivo General de la Nacion, Mexico; Inquisicion, ff. 256, 285-287, 290.]
His known children were Fernando, Pedro II, and most likely, a daughter Isabel, wife of Juan Dominguez de Mendoza. [Origins of New Mexico Families, by Fray Angelico Chavez, page 19.]
From the Web site "Beyond Origins of New Mexico Families" by Jose Antonio Esquibel:
CH�VES (Durán y Chavez)
The following information regarding a record of passage from Spain to New Spain offers an intriguing and possibly valuable opportunity to acquire additional information about the family of Pedro Gómez Durán y Chavez in Spain:
"#4065. Alonso GarcÃa Cerrato, natural de Valverde de Llerena, hijo de Hernán Sánchez Rico y de Leonor Durana, con su mujer Catalina Cabeza, natural de Valverde, hija de Alonso GarcÃa Izquierda y de MarÃa Cabeza, y sus hijos Leonor, Cristóbal, Fernando y MarÃa, a Nueva España 9 de Junio 1576. 5225-A, No. 2, R.36.
According to information found in ONMF, Pedro Gómez Duran y Chavez (ONMF: 19) b.ca. 1550), the progenitor of the Chavez family of New Mexico, was a native of Valverde de Llerena and a son of Hernan Sánchez Rico. Could Alonso GarcÃa Cerrato be a brother Pedro Gómez Durán y Chavez? It would certainly be most worthwhile for an interested researcher to acquire the documents that make up this record of passage and examine the specific contents. Records of passage often provide some personal information about the people who sought license to travel to the Spanish realms of the New World. There may have been witnesses who knew the family that provided testimony on behalf of the character of the couple. There may be a copy of a marriage certificate, and possibly additional information on the family lineage that could be of assistance in extending the family line in Spain. Also, it would be important to confirm all the names extracted from the record. In particular, was the surname Durana a mistaken transcription for Durán?
If a researcher does acquire the records of passage for Alonso GarcÃa Cerrato and Catalina Cabeza, please consider making the information available on this web site.
Researcher: Tony Montoya
Source: Luis Romero Iruela y MarÃa del Carmen Galbis DÃez, Catálogo de pasajeros a Indias siglos xvi, xvii y xviii, Archivo General de Indias, Sevilla, Volumen V, Tomo II (1575-1577), Ministerio de Cultura, 588 (#4065).
From "The Adobe Kingdom" by Donald L. Lucero:
Don Pedro Durán y Chavez I, who for some unknown reason, was always referred to by the honorific "don" reserved at this time for the governor, was an encomendero and held the highest military post in the kingdom. As a much younger man he had been a captain among Peralta's tribute collectors when diverted from his course at Nambe. By 1626 he was maese de campo of all the royal troops in New Mexico with Pedro Lucero de Godoy and the Bacas, Antonio and Alonso, all serving under his command. While the Abendaños and the Perez de Bustillos probably lived on the plain of Santa Fe, the Durán y Cháveses lived on their estancia (a large tract of land for raising livestock) at Arroyo de Tunque in the vicinity of the San Felipe Pueblo. Although the exact site of his encomienda is not known, it was likely at the San Felipe Pueblo. He held extensive land in the Sandia jurisdiction "from the boundries fo the San Felipe Pueblo down through Bernalillo to Atrisco".
From the book "The Place Names of New Mexico" by Robert Julyan: Although the name in NM almost always is spelled Chávez, Chavez is the older form. According to Chávez (Fray Angelico Chávez), the ancestor of NM families with this name was Don Pedro Durán y Chávez, like many conquistadores a native of Estremadura Province in Spain, and it's possible he was the person listed as Pedro Gomez Durán in the Oñate roster of 1600. One Don Fernando de Chavez returned with the reconquest of 1692 and settled in the Rio Abajo. Three members of the Chávez lines were NM governors between 1822 and 1834: Francisco Xavier Chávez, 1822-23; Jose Antonio Chávesm 18288-1831; and Mariano Chávez, 1833-1834. Col. Jose Francisco Chavez, son of Don Mariano, was a prominent figure in NM military and political life late in the 19th century, serving three terms as delgate to Congress beginning 1865; Chavez County was named for him. The Chavez family, more than most Hispanic families, made their mark on the NM landscape; 69 places bear their name.
From the article "From Duran y Chavez to Martinez" by Daniel E. Martinez which appeared in the October 2000 issue of "Herencia", the quarterly journal of the Hispanic Genealogical Research Center of New Mexico (Volume 8, Issue 4):
Don Pedro (Gomez) Duran y Chavez was Maese de Campo, or Commanding General, of all royal troops in New Mexico by 1626 when he testified that he was sixty years old. Don Pedro was the legitimate son of Hernan Sanchez Rico and was born in Valverde, a village some ten miles east of the city of Llerena in the Estremadura region of Spain. His wife, Doña Isabel (de Bohorquez) Baca, daughter of Cristobal Baca and Doña Ana Ortiz, was forty years of age "more or less" in 1626.
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Davis Uriah I | Born 1707
1550 - Bef 1669 (< 119 years)
[4]